Verdict in case of party-bus brawl due on Friday

NEW WESTMINSTER – A Surrey man who has failed to show up in court to answer for his role in a “bloody and senseless” party bus brawl in Cloverdale in 2012 will be sentenced nevertheless.

A sentencing hearing was heard in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster Friday morning (June 12) after Justice Murray Blok ruled that Emmanuel Dario had absconded. Dario was to be sentenced on March 5 but didn’t show up. The Surrey RCMP subsequently published a bulletin for information on his whereabouts but authorities still don’t know where Dario is.

On Friday, Crown Prosecutor Winston Sayson argued for a prison sentence of 18 months to two years less a day, plus lengthy probation, and defence lawyer Mani Sadhu argued for a suspended sentence on grounds his client was subjected to extensive provocation. Blok will reveal his verdict on Friday, June 19.

A jury found Dario guilty last year of two counts of aggravated assault but not guilty of a third charge of aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.

The July 18, 2012 brawl erupted between recent high school graduates and Dario, a motorist who crossed their path behind a Husky gas station at 176th Street and Highway 10.

A charter bus carrying about 50 young people during an after-grad celebration made a pit stop at the Husky Station at about 11:30 p.m. that night.